1.) If you don't have a wedding e-mail address yet, set one up!

There are a few things in life that we can all count on. Death, taxes, and spam in your inbox! As you're planning your wedding, your e-mail address will be used to get you into online wedding forums, registries at bridal shops, and of course, at the bridal shows as well. The thing is, when your wedding day has passed, in many instances, the emails will keep coming, and coming.... Do yourself a favor, set up an e-mail address just for your wedding, and use it for all things wedding related. Once your wedding day has passed, it can go away, and you've spared your personal e-mail inbox the bombardment of wedding spam.

2.) Don't let yourself get frustrated, have a plan!

The main cause of stress for couples attending bridal shows is to walk in without an idea of what they are doing. Depending on what stage you are at in your planning process, you may be just beginning, or you may be on the home stretch and just need a few ideas or areas that you need to wrap up. Regardless, when you walk in the door, have an idea of what your objective is, and do your best to stay on task. Go to the show website, and check out the list of wedding professionals in advance. Make a list of those that you're wanting to visit, and work that into your plan. Sure, you can make stops along the way if you see something that catches your attention, but don't let it take you off task.

3.) The life-changing experience otherwise known as a Bridal Show

You walk into the building and before your eyes it's like the Disney World of Wedding Expos. You'll have everything there from cakes to DJ's, Florists to Realtors, Travel Agents to Chiropractors, and the list goes on and on....and on.... you get the picture. If you're not careful, what will happen is you'll go to each booth, you'll take the literature that they have, drop it in your bag, and move onto the next booth, fully expecting to walk home with a wealth of knowledge tucked neatly away into your bag that you'll be able to reference upon getting home. You'll open up your bag and excitedly see what treasures that you've come home with, eagerly awaiting the process of sifting through your newly collected information.

However, that's not the case.

Here's how that last part will REALLY go. Are you ready?

You'll spend the day at the show, collecting literature from literally hundreds of wedding professionals and other service providers, when you leave the show, you'll be exhausted, your brain will feel like mush, and you'll have what feels like a 20 lb bag attached to your shoulder. Once you get home, you'll collapse onto the first piece of furniture that you run across, and eventually you'll empty the contents of the bag that has been attached to you for the past several hours. Remember the feeling of when you were a kid and you came home on Halloween night and dumped out your bounty for the evening? It will look similar to that, with the exception that rather than a bucket full of candy, it will appear that a bridal show has just thrown up on your bed. You'll more than likely have little (to no) recollection of which piece of literature represented what wedding professional, and you'll essentially have spent your day collecting what amounts to be a wedding phone book.

4.) How to avoid the above listed scenario? READ THE BOOK!

For those of you in my market, this weekend is the Wichita Bridal Expo at Century II Convention Center. This is THE summer show to attend for those of you who are getting married in the future. When you walk in the door, they will give you a bag, and inside of that bag is a highly useful book, that if used, will save you a lot of time and headache following the show that I mentioned above. Inside the book, there will be advertisements from some of the participants in the show, and there is an extremely useful tool inside of the book. Right in the center section of the book, it will list every vendor by name, and will have their booth number. There will also be a map of the show floor inside of the book that you'll be able to use to find the booths that you're looking for. But wait, there's more! You'll also notice that next to each company, there are 3 little letters. Without any explanation, those three letters won't mean much to you, and you'll likely disregard them all together. What are the letters you ask? They are "Y" - "N" - "M". Now you're probably asking: "What do those mean"? Simply "Yes" - "No" - "Maybe". When you visit a booth, you can circle your letter of interest in that company, which will make your life a LOT easier following the show trying to remember who was who. If you pick up literature from the booths, take something to write with, and write their booth number on the literature, this will help you a ton as well.

5.) Lastly, Have Fun!!!

By taking things in stride, if you walk in with a plan, and don't let yourself get overwhelmed, you can really have a lot of fun at the show, and meet some incredibly talented people who can take a lot of the guess-work out of your wedding planning experience. By having a plan for the day, it will allow you to better use your time in order to be able to spend more if it with the companies who you have a genuine interest in working with, rather than feeling like you need to stop at each and every booth.

Take a deep breath and realize that you're in the process of putting together a team, a team that will help you have one of, if not THE most incredible nights in your life. Enjoy the process!

**For more information, stop by and see us at the Wichita Bridal Expo this weekend. If you have any questions, feel free to call me in the office at 316-239-7993, or e-mail me. .